Throughout my career as a graphic artist and an architect, I have looked for and created beauty in my surroundings. The works I have created have been used for theatrical productions, costumes, illustrations for commercial books, tourist leaflets, and even wine labels.  The Riviera and cities of Northern Italy have been the inspiration for a number of Italian exhibitions.

Having met my future wife (painting together in Venice in 1993), I followed her to Cambridge. Based here since 1994, I am privileged in having the magnificent architecture of the University on my doorstep - wonderful inspiration for many artistic projects.

I have continued to go back to Italy and hold private exhibitions there, culminating in the first of several major exhibitions in Venice in 2003. I have also exhibited in Cambridge as a member of the "Open Studios" for a number of years, building and establishing new contacts and clients. One of these exhibitions was entitled 'Impressions of Cambridge'.

As a member of the Society of Architect Artists, I have taken part in several of their London exhibitions and become better acquainted with this unique city and its beauty. In the sun and water 'Venice Impressions' (2004),  'London's Atmosphere' (2005) and the end of 'Routemaster 38' (2006), I try in my art to capture the soul of places, a recent project being “Cambridge College Sundials”.

Watercolour classes for charity at Selwyn College, Cambridge, have given me an opportunity to transmit my passion to many other people of all ages.

In 2009 I had a very successful “Cambridge-Venice” exhibition in Venice, which was followed in 2010, by the exhibition “A homage to the Venetian Architects” during the Venice Architecture Biennale, much praised by the public and media.

These exhibitions were followed in 2012, 2014 and 2016 by specific exhibitions of the different areas, the “Sestieri” of Venice together with two detailed exhibitions about the Gritti & Danieli Hotels, all in exceptional venues, namely the Salone Gardini, Palazzo Franchetti and Magazzini del Sale no. 5.

In the last year, I have started to create panoramic views, these have been much admired for the skill of the artwork and their dimensions – up to 2.5m in length.

My works are on permanent display in Gallery 19, South Kensington, London which is the authorised art dealer in London. 

THE ART OF ADRIAN TUCHEL - Extracts from Carla Gagliardi

The artwork of Adrian Tuchel is the result of many years of gifted artistry combined with architectural accomplishment, fuelled by his great passion for travel. Through his research into minimalism in drawing, his highly personal style has materialised, observing particularly transparency & light.

Both his pen and ink drawings and his watercolours represent well-loved cities and views, often in unusual dream-like angles - discovered & rediscovered places, seen through his eye, reducing the view to its very essence.

Venice is a city of contradictions – Jean Cocteau remarked that in Venice the pigeons walk and the lions have wings to fly - great writers such as Byron, Nietzsche, Brodsky, Goethe, and composers such as Mahler and Wagner portray both the beauty and the darkness of Venice.

The works of Tuchel ‘take flight’ between light and shadow, he feels Venice itself has grown wings and dreams. His drawings have the lightness of air and water not only seen with the eye of the artist but also as an architect.

The historian Sergio Bettini tells us that Venice, a city, built by men, was made stone by stone, balancing on a dense forest submerged in the lagoon – supporting the city of the future. In Adrian’s distant views of Venice, one can almost see this invisible foundation.

DRAWING VENICE

For me, to sketch Venice, is a never-ending work, always in search of improvement. Often the weather is not ideal be it cold or heat, not allowing the hand to draw with lightness. Sometimes other admirers of the view stop in front of you - the fluidity of a drawing can be lost in an instant. Other times the sun and shadows change during a sketch - so many excuses to return.

This presentation which follows the one on the Sestiere of San Marco in 2016 represents the third chapter in a project, which hopes to cover the whole city through exhibitions in the years to come.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the organisations and authorities who have given me permission to draw the views from their shores and terraces -  otherwise impossible views - such as from the Procuratoria di San Marco, la Regione of Veneto, Gritti Palace Hotel, and many others.